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Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Just a quick bit of dabbling this afternoon - the ironing got in the way. So the Show us your Twinchies challenge is all about Summer. For those that remember that far back, sun shine for days on end, washing drying outside, lawns so dry that small animals would fall down the cracks.....

I fancied doing a spot of painting so I did a very tiny water colour of a shoreline. Not up to Tate Gallery standards I know but I actually quite like the result. What do you think?

Then I remembered the lovely little free stamp from Craft Stamper magazine. And in complete contrast to the subtle water colour I went all out with the colours, vibrant and shocking. I stamped the images initially in black and coloured over them completely with ProMarkers. I then stamped the shell again, coloured in the same colours as the bases, cut them out and glazed them before adding them to a contrasting base with silicone glue. I finished each of with a pearl-like gem.

Now technically this is 4 twinchies, but does this series of the same design count as 1 or 3? Who knows?

So there we have it - the entries for the challenge.

As a Post Script I thought you might like to see my original design for the challenge. I usually start the process with a slightly larger than 2 inch piece of card and then trim it to 2 inches. This first piece was going to be cropped down but I simply couldn't find the right place to trim it to. I had cut it to width but the height was proving more challenging. Cutting off the top would have lost the lighthouse and cutting off the bottom would have spoiled the beach hut. So I have just left it 'whole' with the intention of using it as a card topper.

Monday, 24 June 2013

Just one more thing before I really must go. I seem to remember there is a house around me that needs a little attention and would I be right in thinking there are some other people that live here that will be home soon expecting food?

There is a new challenge out from Moo Mania at the moment and the theme is Fashion. Look HERE for more information.

Here is my entry. What comes to mind when I think of fashion is Paris and so my Moo features the Eifel Tower as a backdrop, a leafy tree and a stylish lady. Once again I am amazed at how much detail can be fitted onto such a tiny space. Remember a Moo is only 2.8cm x 7cm.

Today is a GOOD DAY. I have finished my tidy up of the Craft Room and can now see the desk top. Brilliant. The 'Before' picture was taken about 2 years ago when I had less stuff, so imagine what it was like 2 years later with more stuff and less space?

BEFORE

And the 'After' picture was taken a mere 24 hours ago. I wonder how long it will be before the desk top is once again hidden?

AFTER

Comparing the 2 shots the noticeable difference (other than the free space) is an increase in the number of CD case. I store my unmounted stamps in the CD cases, the clear stamps (polymer type) are in two layers and the rubber ones are in a single layer due to the Kling Mount on them. As you can see there are a lot - 210 cases to be exact. My wooden mounted stamps are in the A4 boxes numbered 101 - 118 again these are in a double layer. These haven't increased much because I have found the polymer/clear stamps and the unmounted rubber stamps much easier to work with. It's the old hands you know, I find it hard to press the larger stamps down firmly enough. The dilemma I have is do I take my favourite rubber stamps off their wooden mounting?

And so onto some actual crafting. Many years ago when I first started making cards there was very little in the way of crafting materials readily available on the high street and t'internet was still rare in the home (can you imagine that? No internet?). Anyway, I used all sorts of things to make my cards, recycling fancy wrapping paper, using old packaging materials and of course the standard card size was C6 because that was about the only size envelope you could buy.

While I was doing my tidy-up over the weekend I found some old cards and decided to bring them bang up to date with a little make-over.

I had a 'thing' for beads and wire at the time. I had also tried my hand at making my own paper. The results were very rustic but I liked them. So today, after some careful cutting, stamping and remounting onto a more contemporary card shape here is what I have ended up with.

A New Look

I started the upgrade by distressing the edges using Tim Holtz Vintage Photo. I then stamped the splats using Visible Image stamps in the same colour as the square of mulberry paper. I added a word stamped in the same colour on a little die cut tab and attached it with brads. The original piece already had the raffia bow which is how I had attached it to the card originally.

In Green

In Blue

As usual I forgot to take a snap of the 'old' cards. I really must get into the habit of doing that with my remodeling work.

Sunday, 23 June 2013

Well, yesterday was quite a day. A few weeks ago I sent off some pictures of my work to a 'Design Team Call Out' and late on Friday I got a 'phone call. Was I still interested?

My feet haven't touched the ground since. I have suddenly developed HUGE amounts of energy. My craft room is all tidy, stamps stored away, brushes washed, cutting mat scrubbed, pencils sharpened and I now have a large, flat, white, open space in it. Oh wait, that is the desk top. I had completely forgotten what that looked like.

I was like a whirling dervish today; moving, sorting, binning, labeling, and discovering. Phrases like "ah so that is where that went" and "oops I have one of those already" were much in use, along with "I really must stop collecting all the tiny little bits of card and paper" and "what was I keeping THAT for?".

Once the decks were cleared and calm had been restored I set about finishing off the projects that I had started on Friday morning; you know before the exciting news.

I had been asked about making note books in the same way as I make the decorative books so I thought I would give it a go. And here are the resulting note books. I really enjoy making these books - can you tell?

Black and White and Red All Over

(I will tell you the joke someday)

The B+W+R All Over is made using pages from an old atlas. I used Visible Image Ink Splats stamps and a wood mounted stamp (the maker of which escapes me at the moment) with an art theme over sprayed pages from the index of the atlas. I used a Tim Holtz on the edge die cutter 'Ornate' to create a detailed area around the binding. I then bound the pages with paper-string and beads.

Gold Leaf

This Gold Leaf note book was made using the 'peeled' fabric from the cover of an old book. I need to look out for more books with fabric covers as I just loved working with it on this note book. Other than my usual bead binding I left the design quite simple as I liked the image.

A Little Bit Gothic

This purple paper is hand made (not by me this time) and already suggested an opulent theme to me. I added some metal corners and smokey coloured gems to complete the rich look.

Shock Wave

Finally, Shock Wave. Vibrant, loud and very pink. More hand made paper (do you know what I think it was from Ikea) this time in shocking pink with daisy like flowers. The bright teal colour really 'goes' well I think. Left 'as is' because it is pretty enough. Yes you can have too much pink in my opinion.

So, there it is. A tidy craft room, finished projects and a whole new world of exciting things waiting for me on the Design Team.

"Which DT?" I hear you ask. Now that would be telling. Come back soon and I will tell you everything.

As always if you visit me here please be kind enough to leave a comment.

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Sometimes when you least expect it something goes horribly wrong and you are almost brought to tears. This is how I felt a few days ago while trying to produce a card for the birthday of a special friend. Things just weren't going right and I got a little bit edgy.

SPLASH.

The water pot spilled over onto the paper, everything ran and I was left with what looked like a muddy puddle. I mopped up the spill, put away the inks, turned the light out and left the room. I vowed never to go back in there again.

Today, 3 days later I sneaked in, trying not to look at the mess. But I didn't see a mess. I saw a sheet of water colour card all purple and hazy, all lovely and soft, with a 'shepherds delight' sunset cloud feel.

I immediately sat down and started work. I had been inspired again.

Serendipity Rules

And the resulting card is pretty good actually. What do you think? Sometimes these accidents are merely arts' way of telling us which direction 'it' wants us to go in.

I am including this in Sunday Stamper #261 - Purple Haze. See all the other entries HERE.

As always, please leave a comment if you do visit. It's nice to hear from you all.

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Hello Moo-ers. I have a feeling this is not going to be my last challenge this week, although I have every intention of doing some housework tomorrow. Yeah right.

The challenge with MOO-MANIA this week is to create a MOO using triple stamping. Now I have been searching my stamp library for anything that fits neatly into the MOO size which is 2.7cm x 7cm and I found this little hamlet stamp featuring a tower which fits just perfectly. (I am still not sure where this size originates or indeed why it is called a Moo, but who cares?)

Knock on the Door - I Dare You.

My little Moo is made using a collection of tower and castle type buildings. I love the simplicity of the images and the way I can mask them out to add more towers which gives a seamless image. I also masked out the buildings so I could stamp some trees in the background.

Once the ink was dry I coloured the image using Pro-Marker pens which give such an even finish. The little door on the main tower has a little door knob too.

That door looks like it is opening...........

So there we are, another challenge entered. When will I stop? NEVER.

If you visit my blog please be kind enough to leave a comment. Thank you.

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Today I have been fiddling around with all things of a lavender colour. I have seen lavender as dark as Victoria plums and then as white as snow so realistically any shade of purple counts.

The Lavinia Stamps challenge this month is ‘ Lovely Lavender’ so here is my offering. A symphony in all shades of lavender.

'Lovely Lavender'

It wouldn't be 'my card' if it didn't have a moon on it. Go and see what the other crafters have made with this theme HERE.

I am particularly fond of the little bow which was made using a table fork Oh yes it was. Want to see how? Then go HERE to my Pinterest board to see how it was done. It has been a real help as up till now I had been tying bows all wrong. They would never sit straight, one loop was under the knot, etc etc.

Just a quick blog today as I really must crack on with some chores - ugh - and I am bribing myself with the reward of 2 whole days of crafting IF I get them all done today.

Bye for now. As always please be kind enough to leave a comment if you come to visit.

Monday, 3 June 2013

Despite the lovely weather I have been drawn into my craft room again. Mind you the theme for the challenge has been quite summery so I don't feel like I have missed out on anything.

Twinchies Challenge #2 - Bees and Butterflies - HERE - is what has been on the agenda this morning. I will start with an ingredients shot (this is something I often wish I had done BEFORE making my projects). Luckily with some challenges it is easy to do at the end by collecting the ingredients again.

The basic, naked ingredients.

As soon as I read the title for the challenge I knew exactly which stamp I would use. The lovely bumble bee stamp is one of my favourite stamps. I think it came from Hobbycraft, maybe it was one of their own brand single stamps? Anyway, I love it.

I also knew I would be sticking to the colour of bumble bees, yellow and black. A great pairing. And so off I went ..................

Acetate wings

My project was done fairly quickly, mainly because I had an idea in my head already, but also because my MoJo was totally with me today. I gave Mr Bumble some acetate wings to make him fly across the page.

If you visit my page please be kind enough to leave a comment. I always read them.

Another week has simply flown by. Where did it all go? On the plus side it does mean that it is another Sunday Stamper challenge already.

This week the challenge title is DREAMS - take a look here at the challenge and other entries.

I have recently received a wonderful die cuter from America which cuts rows and rows of tiny holes. Simple things please this simple mind after all. Anyway, I had been testing it out and found that I had rather a lot of examples laying around. Quite co-incidentally I also received a spotty background stamp which goes quite well with the die. It doesn't take much to make me happy obviously.

When I sat at my crafting table I looked at what was lying around and decided to make a tag featuring the dots 'n' spots and came up with this little beauty.

I like the colour combination, those that read my blogs will know that I have a passion for this brown card anyway, but somehow the combination of blue, white and this particular craft card seem to go really well together.

The card base was first stamped all over with dots in navy blue. I then cut the size of tag I wanted, roughed up the edges and inked the edges with the same navy blue ink.

Then it was simply a case of placing the scraps/off cuts onto the tag making sure that I could still see the base pattern. I added a couple of my hand made flowers (again leftovers from my trials of a Tim Holtz cutting die which just happened to be in the right colour).

I finished it all off with a few buttons, ribbon, and the laser cut word DREAM. One of the stamped images has the word DREAMS on it already but I felt the tag needed to have the laser cut on it to finish it off properly. I love these laser cuts. They are from an Australian company called Scrap FX and I am lucky enough to have a huge selection of their products in my stash. I am almost reluctant to use them at times they are so nice. They can be painted, heat embossed, inked etc but I just love them as they are, brown with a hint of darkness where the laser has burnt the edges. I am not sure if there are any UK suppliers anymore.

And there we have it - Sunday Stamper #260 done and dusted. I hope this week proves productive for all you lovely crafters out there and as always, I look forward to reading your comments.